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Whatever happened to John in Miami

I am obviously 'past it ' when it comes to Alby Mengels 'cause I only just remember the name but nothing else' but I really want to know what happened to John in Miami.
He has had three hurricanes but he has obviously survived but still has not posted a trip report - let alone a hurricane report!
See folks how soon we are forgotten, how they don't really care about us.
C'mon John the electricity is back so lets have the report.

Liz,
I'm guessing John has electricity but just heard today from a friend in W. Palm Beach, an hour north of Miami, that she lost all power and phone service (including mobile) for a week. Maybe he's off on vacation somewhere other than FL

I can't speak for John, however, I am in Palm Beach Gardens - about 90 minutes north of Miami. Miami wasn't hit nearly as badly as we were. Almost all power is back. I would guess that John is not home or hasn't logged on recently. He should not have been affected greatly by hurricanes Frances or Ivan.

We fared pretty well considering what others have gone through in our state. We actually live in a place called Weston - about 45 minutes north of Miami (west of Ft. Lauderdale.) We had no effects from Charley but Frances did a number on the trees around here. Thousands of trees were blown over or had branches blown off. Some of our neighbors have large ficus trees and they were blown over, tearing up the ground and street with them. While no one around us suffered serious structural damage, the neighborhood does look different without some of the trees.

At the worst part of the storm, there were about 800,000 people in our county (Broward) without power. Palm Beach county (bordering us to the north) fared far worse with the majority of folks without power. Our local grocery store lost power and their generator blew off the roof which left them with a lot of frozen food that was ruined. We were without power for a few days but we have a small generator which powered our refrigerator, freezer and a couple of fans.

One of my good friends works for the local utility company. They have been sending crews to the affected areas to help with repair the downed lines. He's been gone since Charley in August. He came home for a few days then was sent out to help with Frances. He is still working in West Palm on Frances and as soon as they finish up there, he's off to north Florida to help with Ivan. He's expecting to be gone until at least mid-October. We've been having his wife over to try to keep her mind off him being gone for so long.

This might sound kind of strange but this hurricane season has been a good experience. It's been refreshing to watch people help each other in the face of the oncoming storm and afterwards as well. People got together to help prepare for the storm, assisting those that weren't able to secure their property. Cleanup was the same way with neighbors helping neighbors to cleanup yards and get rid of debris. It was good to see people go out of their way to help others.

On a lighter note, we're working away on our trip report and pictures to go along with it. We took over a thousand images on the trip so we're sifting through those to create a "photo-essay" website documenting our trip. I've even got a couple pictures of Liz so if she gives me permission to post them, you'll all be able to see the beautiful & lovely Liz from Mt Tambourine!

AwH Jeezzzz CRICKEY MATE! You have my permission John to use the photos BUT ONLY if Brenda has doctored them up so that 1/ I am at least as tall as you 2/ I am at least as thin as Elle 3/ I want one chin and not 10 4/ I want to look 22 5/ I want to be as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet 6/ why don't you just cut and paste someone else's body on the picture!
So glad to hear that you are still with us and didn't do a 'Dorothy'. I can imagine that the whole matter did unite the people of the state but it is not the kind of thing that I would want to be united over - but beggars cannot choose.
I did wonder though what you all did to deserve this onslaught but thought that perhaps it was because you all cannot punch a hole in a ballot paper but at least you have got a another election to try and do it right this time.
It beggers belief what nature can do and I was so pleased that there was not more damage done and particularly that New Orleans did not cop the full force.
For folks who may not know New Orleans - it has some of the greatest engineering work in the way of above ground freeways around that low lying area. N.O is below sea level and in the cemetary they have built the graves above ground ( bit like in Rotorua in NZ) but it would have been sent to the bottom of the sea had a severe Tsunami (sp??) hit.
Anyway back to Florida and John and Brenda -
I had been thinking John that next time you wanted to come to Australia we could do a house swap but I am not that sure about that now - I am over hurricanes and cyclones big time, but then if it was not in the middle of that season - who knows eh?
Take care and good to hear from you
Liz